Out of the Past 2012 / La meilleure façon de marcher / France 1975
By means of the troubled memories of a 1960s summer camp, recently-deceased director Claude Miller captured the so-called respectable world, with its hypocrisy, petty prejudices, and hidden racism. The film was included in the KVIFF program this year at the suggestion of Positif magazine to honor the 60th anniversary of its founding.
To mark the 60th anniversary of the film monthly Positif, our festival programme will also include the feature film debut by Claude Miller (1942–2012). The following is an excerpt from a review written for Positif in the year of the film’s release (1975) by Fréderic Vitoux, today a member of the French Academy: "The film was inspired by a prickly memory from the director’s adolescence. The story is set in a summer camp at the beginning of the 1960s (when he was 18) and describes the tension between two camp leaders, Marc (Patrick Dewaere), a macho anti-intellectual with fascist leanings, and the more docile, artistically disposed Philippe (Patrick Bouchitey). When one day Marc catches Philippe wearing women’s clothes, he starts to torment and humiliate him repeatedly in front of his friends and fiancée. In the end, however, Philippe discovers a way to beat Marc at his own game, making the most of his feminine traits while he’s about it.... Using the oppressive experience from his youth, the filmmaker opens up our entire world, laying bare its hypocrisy, the pettiness of its prejudices, and its hidden racism.”
89 min / Color, DIGIBETA
Director Claude Miller
/ Screenplay Claude Miller, Luc Béraud
/ Dir. of Photography Bruno Nuytten
/ Music Alain Jomy
/ Editor Jean-Bernard Bonis
/ Producer Annie Miller
/ Production Les Films de la Boissiere
/ Cast Patrick Dewaere, Patrick Bouchitey, Christine Pascal, Claude Piéplu
/ Contact Pyramide International
Claude Miller (1942, Paris-2012, Paris) studied at IDHEC (1965) and gained experience as an assistant to distinguished directors (Marcel Carné, Michel Deville, Jean-Luc Godard). He also produced Truffaut’s films for seven years. He made several short features and debuted in 1975 with The Best Way to Walk. Miller shot around fifteen films, often involving the participation of France’s finest actors (Patrick Dewaere, Isabelle Adjani, Gérard Depardieu, Miou-Miou, Romy Schneider). He alternated between various genres, but he always aimed for psychologically accurate studies of his characters, or a faithful depiction of a given social problem. Selected filmography: This Sweet Sickness (1977), The Grilling (1981 – three César awards), The Accompanist (1992), Betty Fisher and Other Stories (2001) and Little Lili (2003).
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